Good Managers. . .What They Mean to Their Employees

According to the latest research, an immediate manager has more influence on their employees beyond their role as delegator, evaluator and motivator.. The results suggest that an employe

Research conducted by the Kenexa® Research Institute

evaluated workers’ views of their immediate managers

According to the latest research, an immediate manager has more

influence on their employees beyond their role as delegator,

evaluator and motivator The results suggest that an employee’s

view of their immediate manager has a significant impact on

their engagement level and overall views of the company

For those employed in the United Kingdom, good managers

positively affect an employee’s job satisfaction Managers

who contribute to job satisfaction do an overall good job of

managing people and projects, treat people fairly and provide

useful feedback Managers such as these have a significant,

favorable impact on how these workers rate their pride in their

organization, willingness to recommend it as a place to work

and their overall satisfaction Additionally, those employees who

rate their manager highly intend to stay with the organization

versus those who are dissatisfied with their manager

However, not all organizations have a pool of such talented

managers Favorability regarding an employee’s immediate

manager varies notably among industries Employees in the

banking and accounting industries are the most favorable,

whereas those workers in the light manufacturing and the

transportation industries have the least favorable opinions

Those who are newer to an organization have significantly more favorable opinions of their immediate manager than do those who have been with the organization longer In terms

of age, the youngest workers are the most favorable with their immediate manager

“Effective managers do a better job of retaining talented employees because they manage the workload, treat employees fairly and provide useful feedback,” said Vernon Bryce, European Operations Director, Kenexa

Database Overview

The Kenexa WorkTrends™ database is a comprehensive normative database of employee survey results with comparisons on topics including leadership, employee engagement and customer orientation from workers in Brazil, China, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States

Study Details

The WorkTrends survey question was designed specifically

to evaluate how workers view their immediate manager The question asked was: Overall, how good a job do you feel is being done by your manager?

Employee Engagement

The WorkTrends survey questions were designed to evaluate employee engagement The questions asked were:

Good Managers .What They Mean to

Their Employees

Opinion items were rated using a 5-point Likert-like scale The

percent favorable is the percentage of people who chose either

of the two most positive answers (typically “strongly agree”

or “agree”)

Employee engagement is calculated by averaging the percentage

of favorable responses across these four items This results in a

single score that reflects the overall employee engagement (see

Figure 1)

Figure 1: Views of Immediate Manager

Note: values represent percent favorable

Favorable Views of Immediate Manager Unfavorable Views of Immediate Manager 80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Key Drivers Across Countries

KRI asked a representative sample of over 1,000 workers from

Brazil, China, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the

United States to rate the overall effectiveness of their immediate

manager We then identified the key “drivers” of managerial

effectiveness They are shown in Figure 2

The universal results for the six countries indicate that

subordinate employees rate their managers favorably if the

manager treats employees fairly, does a good job at managing

the work, provides useful feedback and is a “people manager.”

Figure 2: Manager Effectiveness Components by Country

Index Component Brazil China Germany India UK U.S.

Manager treats

Manager does a good job

Manager provides

Manager is good at

Overall job satisfaction • People are motivated to

Manager is ethical •

In addition to the cross cultural drivers of managerial effectiveness, there are unique differences among the six countries

1 German workers feel that an immediate manager is influential over an employee’s job satisfaction

2 Indian workers associate an employee’s willingness to do their very best and an employee’s sense of job security with having an effective manager

3 Brazilian workers rate ethics as a driver of managerial effectiveness

Figure 3: Manager Effectiveness by Job Function

Job Function FavorablePercent

About Kenexa

Kenexa provides business solutions for human resources

We help global organizations multiply business success by identifying the best individuals for every job and fostering optimal work environments for every organization For more than 20 years, Kenexa has studied human behavior and team dynamics in the workplace, and has developed the software solutions, business processes and expert consulting that help organizations impact positive business outcomes through HR Kenexa is the only company that offers a comprehensive suite of unified products and services that support the entire employee lifecycle from pre-hire to exit

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Figure 4: Manager Effectiveness by Industry

Figure 5: Manager Effectiveness by Tenure

Figure 6: Manager Effectiveness by Age